More from Football

New pairing pleases Mowbray

Tony Mowbray is hoping Jonas Olsson and Shelton Martis can help shore up West Brom's leaky defence.

By Chris Burton

Last Updated: 19/03/09 5:18pm

Tony Mowbray is hoping Jonas Olsson and Shelton Martis can help shore up West Brom's leaky defence.

The Baggies have struggled at the back all season, with individual errors doing them no favours in their battle to avoid the drop.

They have conceded more goals (54) than any other side in the Premier League and remain rooted to the foot of the table as a result.

However, Olsson and debutant Martis helped secure a 0-0 draw at West Ham on Monday and Mowbray is set to keep faith with the pair in the hope that they can help to keep things tight for the remainder of the campaign.

"After the clean sheet at Upton Park, I would suggest Jonas and Shelton have to be the men in possession of the places," he said.

"As we have found out in the past, they must concentrate 100 per cent for 90 minutes and not give soft goals away.

"Teams in the Premier League will score goals against us because they have got top strikers but what has frustrated and disappointed me for the past few months is a lot of the goals conceded have been of our own making.

"They have been down to lapses in concentration and our failure to defend certain situations.

Build

"I go and watch loads of games in the Premier League and I see defenders doing their jobs, heading and defending, putting their foot in, putting the ball in the right areas.

"We haven't been able to do that recently but on Monday at West Ham we did. Now we need to build on that."

West Brom currently sit six points adrift of safety with nine games remaining but, with their next three fixtures set to pitch them against fellow strugglers, Mowbray believes a late survival bid is not out of the question.

"If you look at the next three games, with Bolton and Stoke and Portsmouth, we've got to genuinely believe if we get it right on the day we can accrue enough points to give ourselves a realistic chance of getting back into the pack," he added.

"Life becomes difficult when you are at the bottom. For the last two years all we've done is be top of the table in the Championship and taken some plaudits.

"In the Premier League, the boot is on the other foot and we find life difficult because of the quality of the opposition.

"But you've got to keep going and rebounding from the disappointment of another defeat and keep believing and I think the team do. I see that on the training ground every day."